GAME NOTES

COSTA MESA – Watch Live | Live Stats | NAIA Coverage
Vanguard women's basketball begins the 2023-24 NAIA National Tournament on Friday against the Spires of Saint Mary (Kan.), with the winner set to play Briar Cliff (Iowa) or Mid-American Christian (Okla.). The winner of the pod will advance to the final Site in Sioux City, Iowa, to continue the Liston Quadrant of the bracket against the champion of the Siloam Springs, Arkansas, pod. This will be the first matchup against any of the first or second-round opponents in program history. It is win-or-go-home time in NAIA women's basketball, and here is what you can expect in the upcoming matchup.
 
The Lions enter the Wichita site, hosted at Friends University by the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference, as the only ranked team in the final NAIA coaches' poll among the four teams present. Placed eighth in the last rankings and tabbed as a two-seed in the overall bracket, the Lions were winners of the Golden State Athletic Conference regular season title and had won seven in a row entering the GSAC Tournament semifinal game. Averaging 73.8 points per game, the Lions give up an average of 62.1 per contest and own a +7.1 rebound margin and a +9 margin in points differential for the season. The Lions generate a large portion of their points courtesy of offensive rebounds, as the squad is 12th in offensive boards per game in the nation with an average of 16 per contest. VU has converted that metric into 365 second-chance points, a 14.6 average per game. VU has also scored 800 of its 1,846 points in the paint.
 
Melissa Akullu is a large part of those marks, as she is the leading scorer and rebounder for the Blue and Gold and is having a career year across her stat line. Eleventh in total points in the NAIA, Akullu is also sixth in points per game (24.4), third in rebounds per game (13.4), ninth in total rebounds (335), and sixth in offensive boards (152). The Ugandan native is a prime All-American candidate and is looking to shine in the postseason after a so-so run in the 2022-23 bracket. The focal point of the VU attack was held under her season averages by LSU Shreveport and Texas Wesleyan in her first career NAIA Tournament games. Now with some playoff experience under her, Akullu knows what it is like under the brighter lights and will be a large part of Vanguard's success in the first round and beyond.
 
Halle Si'i will be another factor in VU advancing and she had a solid debut in the big dance a year ago. Scoring 15 and then 13 points in the two Tournament games last campaign, Si'i continued to thrive this year, finishing 12th in total points in the GSAC and first in total assists. She owns a +1.4 assist-to-turnover ratio and finished second in scoring on the team with 328 points. The point guard also dished out 126 helpers during the year. 
 
Third on the team in point production is Sarah Matossian, who is also second in total rebounds for Vanguard. Matossian is tied for 11th in the GSAC with 45 steals, is 11th in assists with 71, sixth in total rebounds with 204, and fifth in offensive boards with 85. She is looking to avenge the early knockout last season when she tallied just 10 points and 12 boards across the two NAIA Tournament games in Louisiana. 
 
Jaryn Madsen was a large contributor to the win over LSU Shreveport last March, as she splashed down five times from beyond the arc for 18 points. This season, the sophomore concluded the regular season eighth in the GSAC with 42 triples, a mark that leads the Lions. Alexa Silva just edged out Madsen in three-point percentage at 31.3% and went 2-for-6 from downtown against the Rams in last year's tournament. Silva needs three more conversions from deep to set a new career-high for triples made in a single season.  Airiana Madanski is searching for her first NAIA field goal, as she only made two free throws across the contests last March. The senior started in all but one game for VU and 33 of her 41 total field goals have come from three-point land.
 
New to the NAIA dance will be Ashlin Crabtree and Natalie Scherzer. Crabtree landed 12th in three-point percentage in the GSAC at 31.5%, just a smidge above Silva for the team lead. She has made 28 triples this year and has 113 points so far in her debut campaign. Scherzer is approaching 200 total minutes for the season and has pocketed 69 points and 10 assists. Hunter Simon could prove valuable to the Lions if Akullu gets in foul trouble, as she is the final member of the team to eclipse 100 minutes on the season, scoring 26 points across 18 games.
 
The Spires, as the 15 seed, will have a lot of work to do to pull off the upset, but the runner's up in the KCAC will like their chances on Friday afternoon.  At 25-6 overall and 20-2 in league play, the team did lose big to one of the top teams in the NAIA, as Dordt (Iowa) handed the Spires a 91-51 defeat in the third game of the season. But after that, the team banded together and played strong the rest of the season, as Saint Mary started the KCAC season by going 11-0, a program best. Tabor played the spoiler for the Spires by nicking the regular-season title by one game and taking the conference tournament crown in the waning moments of OT. As the runner's up in the KCAC, USM got an automatic berth in the big dance, but the only other league team to get selected was Tabor, the other automatic berth for the conference. The USM schedule was not one of the hardest in the land, as outside of Tabor, the Spires played only three other teams that made the Big Dance. After the Dordt loss, USM dropped games to Northwestern (Iowa) 78-68, and Columbia (Mo.) 81-58. But no game is a gimme at this stage and strength of schedule aside, the USM lineup has plenty to challenge VU with.
 
"They are a very deep team and really well coached," said Head Coach Russ Davis. "They have lots of firepower and have had a tremendous season."
 
Saint Mary averages 74.3 PPG and allows 62.7 per contest.  Tanea Sims, the KCAC Player of the Year, leads the Spires in scoring, netting 524 points (16.9 PPG) on 54.6% shooting from the field. The matchup between the First-Team All-KCAC senior and GSAC Player of the Year Akullu will be the featured storyline, as Sims ended 14th in the NAIA in total rebounds, 22nd in offensive rebounds, 17th in defensive boards, and 29th in made field goals. She has 206 more points than fellow senior Paige Pendley, who has tallied 318 points this year and made the Third-Team All-KCAC. She has made a lot of hay inside the arc, as only a quarter of her field goals have been from downtown. While her driving ability is her offensive weapon, her defense has been marred by fouls, as she is second on the team with 93 and has fouled out of five games. Watch for the Lions to attack her to add to her totals in the foul department. 
 
But even if she were to get into foul trouble the Spires have two other players who have averaged 10 or more points this season. Alanis Delgado, a Second-Team All-KCAC selection, has averaged 11.9 points per night while shooting 33.5% from downtown. She and Keely Barnard (34.9% from beyond the arc) are the two threats from deep that propelled the Spires to an average of nine threes made per game, 13th-best in the NAIA. Saint Mary is also 15th in three-pointers attempted per game (27.3) and the lineup hits at a 32% clip from beyond the arc. Barnard has 68 three-point shots made on the season to pace the squad and both she and Delgado have over 300 points registered this campaign. Delgado also plays the facilitator role well, as her 104 assists easily lead USM. Senior guard Demi Aamold rounds out the starters and averages just a tick under nine PPG and is an all-around player for the Spires. Alyche Brown can come off the bench as another point guard and has 76 helpers on the year.
 
The two programs will collide at 10:00 a.m. PT, with the winner then playing again on Saturday.
 
The opponent in the next round will be pitted against the winner of Briar Cliff and Mid-American Christian, who play after the VU/USM game concludes. The seventh-seeded Chargers, unofficially 28th in the final coaches' poll, ended the year 21-9 overall and 15-7 in a tough Great Plains Athletic Conference that featured four other NAIA qualifiers.  Briar Cliff beat Jamestown (N.D.) in the GPAC Tournament before falling to Concordia (Neb.) in the second round. The Chargers score 81.6 points per game, 11th in the NAIA, and are 12th in the NAIA in three-pointers made per contest.  Konnor Sudmann (483 points, 14.6 PPG) and Mallie Mcnair (413 points, 13.8 PPG) top the Chargers in points, and Sudmann was named to the First-Team All-GPAC. Sudmann did a majority of her scoring from the interior, is second on BCU with 186 rebounds, and has the most assists on the squad with 108. McNair made a third of her buckets from beyond the arc and was second to Grace Flanagan in terms of triples made on the team. Kennedy Benne was honored as the GPSAC Defensive Player of the Year and averages 12.9 PPG.
 
The Crusaders of MACU rounded out the season at 22-8 overall and 15-7 in the Sooner Athletic Conference.  Fourth in the SAC at the end of the regular season, the side was knocked out in the SAC semifinal by eventual winner John Brown (Ark.). The Crusaders had to grind through a tough slate, as the SAC netted four other qualifiers to the dance, and John Brown is the three-seed in the Liston Quadrant. Shy Christopher was an All-SAC First-Team selection and leads MACU with 579 points, which equates to 19.3 per game. She is tied for third on the squad with 50 offensive rebounds, tied for second with 170 rebounds, and is top of the team with 75 assists. Jaci Littell Calavan was named to the Second-Team All-SAC and was right behind Christopher with 509 points (17 PPG), 170 rebounds, and 73 assists this season. While Christopher has the most field goals made, Calavan and Kylee Scheer lead the Crusaders with 73 and 53 three-pointers made, respectively. Both shooters knock down triples at 37%. In addition to her deep ball, Scheer is the top rebounder on the team with 184 boards.